• Dangerous Minds Shop

She bullied, bluffed, and bribed her students into caring about school.And if that didn't work, the pretty, petite ex-marine told them she'd been trained to kill with her bare hands.They were called the class from Hell-thirty-four inner city sophomores she inherited from a teacher who'd been 'pushed over the edge.' She was told 'those kids have tasted blood. They're She bullied, bluffed, and bribed her students into caring about school.And if that didn't work, the pretty, petite ex-marine told them she'd been trained to kill with her bare hands.They were called the class from Hell-thirty-four inner city sophomores she inherited from a teacher who'd been 'pushed over the edge.' She was told 'those kids have tasted blood. They're dangerous.' But LouAnne Johnson had a different idea.

Where the school system saw thirty-four unreachable kids, she saw young men and women with intelligence and dreams. When others gave up on them, she broke the rules to give them the best things a teacher can give-hope and belief in themselves. When statistics showed the chances were they'd never graduate, she fought to beat the odds.This is her remarkable story-and theirs.If you loved Stand and Deliver, you'll stand up and cheer for LouAnne Johnson and Dangerous Minds. I decided to read this book after hearing an interview with Johnson on NPR’s This American Life.

Johnson said her teaching experience wasn’t much like Michelle Pfeiffer’s teaching experience in Dangerous Minds, the movie inspired by Johnson’s book. She also said she returned, uncashed, the royalty check from the Dangerous Minds television show, a weekly drama inspired by the movie. Johnson didn’t want anything to do with it. And no wonder: The book is unlike the movie and the television show.

Download carls darvin poreklo vrsta pdf 2. In I decided to read this book after hearing an interview with Johnson on NPR’s This American Life. Johnson said her teaching experience wasn’t much like Michelle Pfeiffer’s teaching experience in Dangerous Minds, the movie inspired by Johnson’s book.

She also said she returned, uncashed, the royalty check from the Dangerous Minds television show, a weekly drama inspired by the movie. Johnson didn’t want anything to do with it. And no wonder: The book is unlike the movie and the television show.

In the book, Johnson never has her life threatened by a student. She never hosts a school fundraiser at a strip club. She teaches an Honors program for gifted students who have some of the academic struggles and behavior challenges depicted on the small and big screens, but not to the same degree. Most pointedly, at one point in the book, Johnson directly rejects the “teacher as savior” narrative that made the movie and television show so successful. When her colleague Bud criticizes her grading methods and then proceeds to glorify the time he spent working at a “dilapidated high school in the poorest section of the city” a few years prior, Johnson retorts, “Well, that was real white of you to go and help those poor little nigra and beaner heathen” (170).I appreciated Johnson’s commitment to plot.

Because so much writing about teaching is reflective, I found it refreshing to read something driven by action. The first two pages of the book contain these two sentences: “I couldn’t concentrate. Raul Chacon was standing in the middle of the parking lot outside my classroom, shivering in the freezing rain” (3), and “I had intended to keep Raul after class and give him a stern lecture, but I ended up giving him a hundred dollars instead” (4).

Johnson doles out information in tantalizing, heaping teaspoons. One way she does this is by collapsing series of three or four small actions into quick, efficient summaries that propel the scene. Examples: “He leaned forward, crossed his arms on his desktop, and looked me straight in the eye” (33); “Jason was still holding the pencil, frowning at the page. A few words had been scribbled, but most of the exercises remained undone” (83); “I asked with exaggerated politeness. He ignored me. I leaned down and spoke close to his ear” (77); “I stopped dead and bellowed at top volume.

It felt great, so I flailed my armes and shook my head wildly, letting my lips blubber loosely” (39). In the same way one detail in an essay or story can be described by activating “three sensuous strokes,” a scene can gain momentum with three small actions.I also enjoyed Johnson’s intentional repetition when describing characters: “Mrs. Nichols cleared her throat and rearranged her necklace, three thick strands of braided silver rope” (18). Then, a page later: “Mrs.

Nicols frowned and fingered her necklace” (19). Johnson uses the same kind of repetition in describing Troy Jones, a student with lightning bolts “shooting across his head” (77). A lengthier description: “His hair was cut close to his head, and a lightning bolt was shaved into the left side of his skull.

Three tiny gemstones glittered on his left earlobe” (73). Then, a little later: “Troy Jones, complete with thunderbolts and earrings” (85). Johnson refers to a hundred dollar bet she holds with one student four times in the first eleven pages, and then again at the very end of the book. On a practical level, repeating these salient details helped me keep track of the characters.

Johnson taught four classes a day, and with so many of her classes full, I needed help keeping track of all the students. This is one of those books that's just enjoyable to read. Every chapter is a different story, so you don't have to stress about an overall plot. The characters reoccur sometimes, but it doesn't matter if you've forgotten them.

The writing is super readable, but there are still some quotable lines.The book just makes you happy. Some really upsetting things happen, but Johnson is always sure to follow them up with a heart-warming story of something turning out perfectly. It makes you feel like This is one of those books that's just enjoyable to read. Every chapter is a different story, so you don't have to stress about an overall plot. The characters reoccur sometimes, but it doesn't matter if you've forgotten them.

The writing is super readable, but there are still some quotable lines.The book just makes you happy. Some really upsetting things happen, but Johnson is always sure to follow them up with a heart-warming story of something turning out perfectly. It makes you feel like the education system isn't broken after all.I'm not sure how I actually feel about Johnson as a teacher, and I don't agree with a lot of the things she did, but this book isn't political. I just decided to sit back and read without judging her, and that was a lot more fun.This is a good book for the next time you've read too many depressing novels in a row.

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,.This'll be for both this book and the next one ( The Girls In The Back of the Classroom)I decided to check out the books My Posse Don’t Do Homework and The Girls in the Back of the Classroom by Louanne Johnson after having seen the movie Dangerous Minds. Those are the books it’s loosely based off of.These books are very raw.

Dangerous Minds Shop

They’re nonfiction (where as the movie is fiction), written by Louanne Johnson herself, a school teacher in California. She's pretty admirable, because I know I could never.This'll be for both this book and the next one ( The Girls In The Back of the Classroom)I decided to check out the books My Posse Don’t Do Homework and The Girls in the Back of the Classroom by Louanne Johnson after having seen the movie Dangerous Minds. Those are the books it’s loosely based off of.These books are very raw. They’re nonfiction (where as the movie is fiction), written by Louanne Johnson herself, a school teacher in California. She's pretty admirable, because I know I could never handle teaching a bunch of kids (I don’t like them very much).

But she really helped out a lot of people. I like both equally, the movie and the book. As far as comparing and contrasting goes, the books are more personal, and definitely more authentic. They are more complex too.

The movie follows the archetype of teacher comes in, inspires troubled students, ‘saves’ them, etc. Which I love, don’t get me wrong. I’m a sucker for those kind of films. I love Stand and Deliver, Lean on Me, etc.

But in the book, it goes into more detail about Ms. Johnson’s life herself, especially in the second one.

You get a painful taste of what it’s like to be a teacher who cares as much as her.Not all of it is happy endings. That’s obvious in the movie, but in the book, there are two situations. One with a boy named Attiba and another with a boy named Junior Advani. With Attiba, he just didn’t want help. And no matter how much you may want to help somebody, they have to be willing to help themselves. It takes two. You can’t do it if they continue to push you away.

With Advaniat FIRST, I felt sympathy for him. Because I thought people were only judging him solely based on the way he looked. For having half his head shaved, for wearing Metallica shirtsyou get the picture. I thought people were only judging him as being ‘Satanic’ because people like to stereotype based on the shallowest of reasons.

Howeveras I started reading further into his story, I realized how crazy he really is. He held a knife to his mother’s throat. And all his father did was kick him out of the house for the night.

Johnson told his father he should see a counselor, he turned the suggestion down. And I was just like ‘Your son held a knife to your wife’s throatand you’re acting like it’s just no big deal? Wtf?!’ There were also several reports from kids saying he would chant Satanic things to them. There was even a girl who brought a knife to school—BROUGHT A KNIFE TO SCHOOL—risking expulsion just to protect herself, because she felt threatened by him. Basically this story ended with Ms.

Johnson not being able to help him either because his father refused to cooperate, and the last time she saw Advani was in the hallway when he said, “Ms. Johnson, my favorite teacher!” Ms.

Johnson said her blood ran cold, and there was seriously something wrong with that kid. This story was not only depressing, but a little scary actually.Two things in the second book ( The Girls in the Back of the Classroom) that legitimately pissed me off (not the book itself, but certain situations and things people did): One, Mr. Lydecker, and how he got in NO trouble whatsoever for how he treated Emilio (not to mention other kids). It’s despicable how teachers can get away with anything, just because they’re adults, but students are the ones who always get in trouble. Emilio had to go to jail and miss graduation because he got physical with Mr. When Mr.—nope, I won’t even call him ‘Mr.’ When Lydecker is the one who started it? The dumb excuse for a man would verbally abuse kids, see Emilio and Emilio’s girlfriend walking down the hallway, and FLIRT WITH HER.

That’s right, fucking FLIRT WITH HER. This is disgusting on so many levels. First off, she’s a high school student. You’re a high school teacher.

If you’re a full-grown man, do not go up to a teenage girl and hit on her. You are the scum of the earth if you do that. Secondly, right in front of her boyfriend? Just because he’s a student you don’t like and you want to get to him? That’s way, way low.

And the most horrible thing about the whole situation was that Lydecker got away with it COMPLETELY. And people wonder why teens rebel against adults???The second thing in this book that enraged me was when the two girls, Maria and Isabella, got suspended I think? In some kind of trouble forwhat? I’ll tell you what: NOTHING. They were ATTACKED in the girls’ bathroom by two other bitches, and Maria and Isabella were the VICTIMS.

And yet, they got in trouble, for someone ATTACKING THEM. And they didn’t even fight back. Not that that would have been a bad thing, because they had every right to.

But I can’t begin to comprehend how a school can have the power to suspend two innocent girls for doing NOTHING when they were the ones being attacked. Why don’t they go ahead and suspend anyone that’s been abused or raped at one point in their lives too, while they’re at it?This reminds me of how when I was in high school, my assistant principle said there was ‘no such thing as self-defense’. That has to be the most absurd, preposterous, LIE I’ve ever heard. I get so heated when schools deny us the right to self-defense, because here’s the thing. We live in a dangerous world.

We live in a world where people will attack you, rape you, kill you, like no one’s business. This bullshit people believe that school is safer than anything else in the world is exactly that: bullshit.

There are always deserted places in schools where no teacher, administrator, or grown-up in general is around, and EVEN IF they areif someone’s crazy enough to attack someone else, do you honestly think they’ll care if they have witnesses? If they get caught? If you threaten them with expulsion? And don’t think that you can stop them eitheryou think that just because you’re a grown-up and they’re a teen, they can’t kick your ass? There are PLENTY of teenagers out there who are bigger and stronger than most adults, or if they have a gun or knife, it won’t even matter.If someone attacks me in a deserted area, I’m supposed to just sit there and let them do whatever the hell they want to me, because if I fight back to PROTECT myself, I’m going to get in trouble? What kind of masochistic BULLSHIT is that?

How can you teach children and teens not to protect themselves when someone is hurting them? There’s ‘no such thing as self-defense’? Tell that to all the people out there who’ve been raped or kidnapped or have lost a loved one to cold-blooded murder.A couple criticisms: (I can't remember which book each one occurs in) There was a boy who would wear a black t-shirt with a skull on it, and for some reason, this was criticized. I'm not really sure why.

I hope Louanne Johnson herself is above that kind of close-mindedness. For some reason, there are some adults out there that like to pick on every little thing a teen is wearing just because it isn't THEIR personal style. I don't go around picking at everything I see adults (especially teachers, who aren't even allowed to wear jeans for some reason) wearing, even though I don't like it. So I don't know what was up with that.There was a part where a non-white kid was talking about how he went up to a person (presumably white, I think) on the streets and asked if he could have their jacket.

They gave it to him. Then he goes on to say that it was racism because the only reason the person did that was because they were afraid of him.That's not racism. That's someone being cautious because you are acting weird and suspicious toward them.

They are perfectly within their rights, not to mention normal common sense, to be wary of you. No normal person just goes up to a random stranger and asks them for their hoodie or whatever.

Maybe they were in a rough neighborhood. Maybe they wanted to avoid trouble.

Maybe you were dressed like a thug. It doesn't matter how 'nice' you may have been about it, your clear intention was still to get something out of them. That does not make you the victim, it makes you a bully. Stop taking advantage of other people and then crying racism. That shit gets real old, real fast.There is also a brief part where some white students in the classroom are supposed to feel guilty about not caring what the minority students think about them-COMPLETELY ignoring the fact that it's because said minority students are constantly making racist remarks toward them, or just don't like them period because they're white. Why aren't the minority kids called out on this? Why is it always just the white people who should feel guilty about things?

Especially when all they're doing is fighting back against kids in the class who are attacking them FIRST.Aside from all that, I would recommend this book to almost anyone, adults and teens alike. Probably not kids though, seeing as how it has older content and would probably not interest them anyway. It’s very touching, real, and I’d like to read it again. There’s always something to take away from work like this. I’d also like to check out Louanne Johnson’s other works. I enjoyed this book.

It now sounds outdated, old fashioned in places - taking students for coffee, giving them lifts home in your car, saving them from arrest and not informing their parents. I liked Johnson's narrative arc and the way she does move away from the idea that teachers can solve all of the problems that their students face.

That said, I thought the description of ex-colleagues was unprofessional in places and some of her methods unsustainable. I admire Johnson for her work and I I enjoyed this book. It now sounds outdated, old fashioned in places - taking students for coffee, giving them lifts home in your car, saving them from arrest and not informing their parents. I liked Johnson's narrative arc and the way she does move away from the idea that teachers can solve all of the problems that their students face. That said, I thought the description of ex-colleagues was unprofessional in places and some of her methods unsustainable.

I admire Johnson for her work and I would like to know more about how her career progressed after the teaching role and then into the book/film/TV show. The book is not like the film (from what I remember) so I'd recommend it as much less saccharine and holy than the 'Hollywood ' version. This book is kind of a train wreck of sorts - but here's my review that I wrote for my M.A.T. Program.Miss Johnson is a newly hired teacher set with the task of working in a difficult inner city school.

I remember going to the movie theatre in middle school and watching “Dangerous Minds” starring Michelle Pfeiffer. The book goes much more in depth into the curriculum, class room management style, and lives of children in Miss Johnson’s classes.I have to say that I was disturbed by some of the This book is kind of a train wreck of sorts - but here's my review that I wrote for my M.A.T. Program.Miss Johnson is a newly hired teacher set with the task of working in a difficult inner city school. I remember going to the movie theatre in middle school and watching “Dangerous Minds” starring Michelle Pfeiffer. The book goes much more in depth into the curriculum, class room management style, and lives of children in Miss Johnson’s classes.I have to say that I was disturbed by some of the techniques that Miss Johnson used in the classroom with her students.

I know that the classes weren’t the easiest to manage but some approaches seemed imbalanced. There are traditional and non-traditional ways to approach decorum in a classroom. I was taken aback when Miss Johnson kissed a sleeping student on the cheek to wake him up and continued throughout her narrative to talk about how she would threaten to “kick her student’s asses”.An epic rant near the end of the book seemed the most off kilter,“I know you kids are angry,” I yelled, “because the world isn’t fair. Well, get over it, because it’s never going to be fair. The white boys have all the money and the power and that’s the way it is. And they aren’t going to give it up - to you or to me.

And you can’t blame them for it because if you had it, you wouldn’t give it to them either.” (230).Miss Johnson is expressing truth to her class in the fact that our society is dominated by white men and a small percentage of people control the country’s wealth. Her approach to talking about this issue to her students seems inappropriate and biased. I believe that greedy people should be held accountable for their greed. I believe that change is possible and given the opportunity, means, and education that oppressed and impoverished people can rise above socioeconomic adversity to achieve greatness. Personal Response:I liked this book a lot. In some ways it was a comedy and in other ways it was serious. I also liked how it was a nonfictional book I don’t read a lot of those, but I liked this one.Summary:The book “Dangerous Minds” was written by Louanne Johnson.

She wrote it about her teaching experiences. Miss Johnson was a teacher for troubled students. She taught a lot of different kinds of kids. She taught kids who didn’t care about anything that had to do with school and kids that Personal Response:I liked this book a lot. In some ways it was a comedy and in other ways it was serious. I also liked how it was a nonfictional book I don’t read a lot of those, but I liked this one.Summary:The book “Dangerous Minds” was written by Louanne Johnson.

She wrote it about her teaching experiences. Miss Johnson was a teacher for troubled students. She taught a lot of different kinds of kids.

She taught kids who didn’t care about anything that had to do with school and kids that didn’t know anything about the English language. Miss Johnson did a lot for the kids that she taught. She broke a lot of rules and took a lot of risks. Her teaching methods were really original. She manipulated her student into doing their work, but not in a bad way. She did things like sent letters home about how much she enjoyed having that student in her class, even if they did cause trouble. That is just one of the many ways she got her students motivated to do their work.

Miss Johnson took some of the students out to get away from their parents. A lot of students didn’t have a good life at home.

She had an interesting grade scale as well. She told the kids that important things like spelling and grammar did not matter. It was her way of getting her students to contribute in class work and discussions. Miss Johnson was a great teacher, the kids actually learned something. Whether it has to do with something they were learning in school or something that they could use socially. Like being more independent or being able to express their feelings in multiple ways.

Whatever challenge that Miss Johnson got somehow she figured it out. She got her students to want to learn. She taught kids how to read, write, and speak English. Miss Johnson got her students to want to succeed.Recommendations:I would recommend this book to any gender. It is not classified specifically to a male or female liking.

The age recommendation would be 14 and up just because of the language that is used. Maturity level might be a higher level for this book also because of the language used and the situations that happen in the book. My Posse Don’t Do HomeworkBy: LouAnne JohnsonFirst of all Louanne Johnson did an amazing job of writing this and how she explains all of her stories is so good. This is my first book I have read of hers and I think she is an amazing writer. She makes it such a good book about a first year teacher with the other years following. The way she gets the kids in the story so connected to the reader is so amazing. It felt like I actually knew the high schoolers in this book.

It is also like me having My Posse Don’t Do HomeworkBy: LouAnne JohnsonFirst of all Louanne Johnson did an amazing job of writing this and how she explains all of her stories is so good. This is my first book I have read of hers and I think she is an amazing writer. She makes it such a good book about a first year teacher with the other years following. The way she gets the kids in the story so connected to the reader is so amazing. It felt like I actually knew the high schoolers in this book. It is also like me having miss Johnson has a real teacher.Some of the thins LouAnne Johnson does is like she wrote the book herself and all of these happened to her in her career. She also explains what is happening in the story so good.

She explains how each student acts in all of her classes and how she helps the students is amazing too. She gets them motivated by so many things it is amazing and how she acts to her new classes and her punishments if someone is messing around. When you read some of these parts in the book she will make your jaw drop when you finish a chapter or even the book.I one-hundred percent recommend this book to teenagers and adults.

It is an amazing book and I did not see any flaws of the book. I think you should read it cause you can really connect to the kids and she really gives you a lot of details.These are just some reasons why I think you should read this great book. What an inspiring novel! After watching the movie - repeatedly - I was inspired to read the book. How shocked and pleasantly surprised I was to realise how loosely the film is adaptated!

This book provides so much more substance than the film, it's more real and raw. Some parts, however, I was disappointed particular events from the film didn't happen in the book - but knowing they didn't occur was a pleasant surprise (no spoilers). There were more focal characters and many more events in the What an inspiring novel! After watching the movie - repeatedly - I was inspired to read the book.

How shocked and pleasantly surprised I was to realise how loosely the film is adaptated! This book provides so much more substance than the film, it's more real and raw. Some parts, however, I was disappointed particular events from the film didn't happen in the book - but knowing they didn't occur was a pleasant surprise (no spoilers). There were more focal characters and many more events in the book, it has made me respect LoAnne on a new level. A really engaging novel and a stream of enthralling chapters strung in a clever way! It makes you want to find out what happened to some students after they graduated. It really inspires you if you work with students, to focus on the ones you do help, and not be discouraged by the ones you cannot save.

Also, her poignant philosophy of replacing words, where she used 'I have to' being 'choose', and 'I can't' being 'don't want to', this actually was enlightening for me! I will use this in my daily practice. Thanks for the great read.:-).

Johnson took a chance by becoming a teacher at a run down, inner city school in west Los Angeles. Almost all of her students were troubled and underpriveleged. 'You're about to step into a room full of hormone-crazed teenagers and ask them to commit unnatural acts like sit down, shut up, and listen to someone too old to be taken seriously.'

Throughout the course of the year, she began to change the way these students viewed school, and showed them the importance school will have on their Ms. Johnson took a chance by becoming a teacher at a run down, inner city school in west Los Angeles. Almost all of her students were troubled and underpriveleged. 'You're about to step into a room full of hormone-crazed teenagers and ask them to commit unnatural acts like sit down, shut up, and listen to someone too old to be taken seriously.' Throughout the course of the year, she began to change the way these students viewed school, and showed them the importance school will have on their futures. 'I'm not going to walk into that classroom and expect my kids to fail. I expect them to learn.'

Individually, she connected with each of her students personally, and helped them when troubled, whether in, or out of school. A strong trust between the students and teacher was what made their relationship work well.

Each student knew that Ms. Johnson was there for them, and that she would guide them along where ever they needed help.' What are you teaching, you may ask? You're teaching kids how to analyze information, relate it to other information they know, put it together and take it apart, and give it back to you in the form you request it. It doesn't matter what the class is, we all teach the same things.

We just use different terms. And you're also teaching an optional agenda - you're teaching your kids to believe in themselves. So don't worry about whether you're teaching grammar. You're teaching those kids. Trust me, you're teaching them.'

LouAnne Johnson was an excellent teacher, one whose attitude you don't see in teachers these days. I like how she showed her concern for her students she wrote about and how she helped them succeed. She helps them with their lives and gives them strength to brighten their future; she never gives up on her kids.Ms. Johnson teaches them things they never thought they could learn or do. She gives them hope in themselves. I recommend this book to all students and educators to read; it gives an inside look at how one teacher can truly make an impact on students' lives.This book went straight to my heart and I feel for all the characters. As I was reading the book I would be so involved with Ms.

Johnson's school days that I wouldn't want to put the book down. I think this shows that there are good teachers out there, and students should give them a chance to teach and not take advantage of that opportunity.Book Details:Title Dangerous Minds (Previously published as 'My Posse Don't Do Homework')Author LouAnne JohnsonReviewed By Purplycookie.

In the book Dangerous Minds by Louanne Johnson, I saw a whole new perspective on how some teachers; view us students. The scene or story, takes place at a poor lonely low rated school. One word would describe that school, and it would be potential. Johnson recognized that, as soon as she spoke one word to the class. Several teachers experienced what she did, in a matter of seconds their one word, deadly. What could have made her stay there or was she just crazy?If I would have as much In the book Dangerous Minds by Louanne Johnson, I saw a whole new perspective on how some teachers; view us students.

The scene or story, takes place at a poor lonely low rated school. One word would describe that school, and it would be potential.

Johnson recognized that, as soon as she spoke one word to the class. Several teachers experienced what she did, in a matter of seconds their one word, deadly. What could have made her stay there or was she just crazy?If I would have as much potential as Ms.

Johnson to teach, I would totally play it like she played it with her class at school. Though I wouldn't have thought of some of the things she did like kiss a boy in her class with red lipstick just because he was asleep.

I like how she got respect by her students by just playing their own game with a twist of the rules. Though I would totally get scared like she did when she got a book thrown at her on the first day of class. She reminded me of me, I think she is pretty tuff and ready to take risks like completing the navy.This book, really got to the extremes and Louanne takes and deals in a calm matter on everything that her students cause.

This woman, that used to train in the navy for a long time and has gone through thick and thin, decides to teach in this one school, gets called in one day and hired instantly. She at first got told so many stories about the class she was to teach and that she would not even last an hour. So many stories told that scared her and got her thinking. Though she never backed away from her fear and stepped in the class. She thought she had it coming and decided to play it tough.

Though she never saw it coming, the way the students reacted. As the days go by and Louanne proofs that she can handle her class, she tries to get average students with potential and bad grades to at least pass class. She especially tries and gains trust of her students but will they or will they not? These kinds of books (teacher makes a difference in her school with energy and love and creativity) are so often written by young teachers. It takes endless cleverness and patience for them to make the difference they make.

I wonder how these teachers end up after 20 years in the classroom? Do they become bitter, hardened, cynical teachers? Or do they keep their idealism and energy? In any case, this was a well-written book. Written in a series of vignettes instead of a timeline story, it shows These kinds of books (teacher makes a difference in her school with energy and love and creativity) are so often written by young teachers. It takes endless cleverness and patience for them to make the difference they make.

I wonder how these teachers end up after 20 years in the classroom? Do they become bitter, hardened, cynical teachers?

Or do they keep their idealism and energy? In any case, this was a well-written book. Written in a series of vignettes instead of a timeline story, it shows the memorable moments of a difficult school with a rough class.

I'll have to look up the author and see if she has other books out there. I haven't seen the movie, but I always hesitate to see movie versions of books I enjoy. They're so rarely as good as the book. Interesting, but probably would have been better as series of magazine articles, rather than a book. As is, it's sort of repetitive. She's an ex-marine who sets out to be a HS teacher (and her picture on the blurb looks nothing like Michelle Pfeiffer). Her students are difficult, and she has to break through their defenses to get them to try.

Mostly deals with successes, and no real good feel of how frequent they are. She has some good stories, but a lot seem to be of the form: this student was Interesting, but probably would have been better as series of magazine articles, rather than a book. As is, it's sort of repetitive. She's an ex-marine who sets out to be a HS teacher (and her picture on the blurb looks nothing like Michelle Pfeiffer). Her students are difficult, and she has to break through their defenses to get them to try. Mostly deals with successes, and no real good feel of how frequent they are.

She has some good stories, but a lot seem to be of the form: this student was difficult, this is how I was able to communicate will with him/her, it almost didn't work, but in the end blah blah blah. She sort of tries to avoid this, but she's not quite a good enough writer to pull it off for more than one anecdote at a time. But really, there are interesting stories. Great story.important to know these kinds of problems. It take a very special person to reach out to others that are having trouble and at the same there there are serious needs that can be helped. My eyes were opened with the characters in this novel.much better than the movie because of greater detail and the fact that I could read secions over, dog-ear the pages if you will.

One Last Chance, maybe, but probably not but it is dangerous to play with fire. Much better to address the issues Great story.important to know these kinds of problems. It take a very special person to reach out to others that are having trouble and at the same there there are serious needs that can be helped.

My eyes were opened with the characters in this novel.much better than the movie because of greater detail and the fact that I could read secions over, dog-ear the pages if you will. One Last Chance, maybe, but probably not but it is dangerous to play with fire.

Much better to address the issues at hand and make a difference in the world. It's hard not to like a book by a teacher who seems to be able to reach kids who are totally turned off to school.

Teaching mostly at-risk but high-potential students of color in the East San Francisco Bay area, Johnson seems to have an incredible gift for teaching. Her book doesn't really deal with the structural/institutional reasons why her students have so many problems, which would have been helpful and added another layer to her story. But this is still an eminently readable and engrossing It's hard not to like a book by a teacher who seems to be able to reach kids who are totally turned off to school. Teaching mostly at-risk but high-potential students of color in the East San Francisco Bay area, Johnson seems to have an incredible gift for teaching. Her book doesn't really deal with the structural/institutional reasons why her students have so many problems, which would have been helpful and added another layer to her story. But this is still an eminently readable and engrossing book.

LouAnne Johnson is a former U.S. Navy journalist, Marine Corps officer, high school teacher, and the author of The New York Times bestseller Dangerous Minds (originally My Posse Don't Do Homework). In 1989, LouAnne began teaching reading and writing to non-English speakers as an intern at a high school in California. Since then LouAnne has taught English, adult basic education, developmental LouAnne Johnson is a former U.S. Navy journalist, Marine Corps officer, high school teacher, and the author of The New York Times bestseller Dangerous Minds (originally My Posse Don't Do Homework).

In 1989, LouAnne began teaching reading and writing to non-English speakers as an intern at a high school in California. Since then LouAnne has taught English, adult basic education, developmental reading and writing at high schools and colleges. She also designs and presents workshops in classroom management and motivation. LouAnne has presented keynote and commencement addresses to numerous organizations, including the National School Boards Association, the National Council on Curriculum Development, National University and the European Council of International Schools. She has appeared on several TV shows, including Oprah, CBS Eye to Eye, NBC Weekend Today, Maury Povich, Tom Snyder, and CNN.'

At present, she lives in rural New Mexico with her adopted canine companion, Nellie, and an adjunct instructor for an online alternative licensure program for future teachers. “I know you kids are angry, because the world isn't fair. Well, get over it, because it's never going to be fair. The white boys have all the money and all the power and that's the way it is. And they aren't going to give it up - to you or to me. And you can't blame them for it because if you had it, you wouldn't give it to them, either. But fighting each other isn't going to fix anything.

All it's going to do is let everybody go on insisting that black and Hispanic kids are ignorant and violent. That's perfect. If you're ignorant and violent, people who don't like you can kick you out of school or put you in jail.

And it's you own fault.”—.

Photo illustration by Lisa Larson-Walker. Film stills via Warner Bros, Columbia, Buena Vista/Disney, Paramount, Warner Bros.When opened 20 years ago this week, the critics couldn’t tell their readers loudly enough just how totally over it they felt. The film “tells another one of those uplifting parables in which the dedicated teacher takes on a schoolroom full of rebellious malcontents, and wins them over with an unorthodox approach,” began Roger Ebert. The New York Times’ Janet Maslin hit the same theme: “.”. Such critiques were not without merit. By 1995 the inspirational teacher movie, otherwise known as the “” trope, was already several decades old, and Dangerous Minds stuck closely to its formula. That formula is simple: A new teacher takes on failing or at-risk kids who have long been abandoned by the system (usually in a poor, urban neighborhood) and helps turn their grades, and thus their lives, around.

At some point, the teacher will reach a point at which she will want to quit, but an out-of-the-blue grand gesture by the kids will change her mind by the third act. It’s a subgenre that is naturally prone to sentimentality, so even the good or at least watchable examples of the form—like and —are at least somewhat cheesy. Dangerous Minds stands out from its predecessors and many of the films that followed as a particularly egregious example of the inspirational-teacher idiom, particularly when it comes to its feel-good oversimplifying of two of its themes, pedagogy and race. The drama, loosely based on the memoir by retired-Marine-turned-teacher LouAnne Johnson, doesn’t just stick to a well-worn path; in heightening the genre’s worst tropes so effusively, it elevates the condescendence and, more embarrassingly, the white-savior narrative that so frequently rests at its core.Dangerous Minds starts off like most save-our-students films: with a depiction of a broken, or at least not particularly affluent, neighborhood. In movies like, and Stand and Deliver, the eventual hero teacher is seen walking, driving, or riding the bus to his or her first day on the job. The point is to emphasize the cultural dissonance and long odds the teacher faces by positioning him or her as a fish out of water, and by positioning the students who come from these neighborhoods as at-risk youth.

(The explicitly asks what Sandy Dennis’ character—“a nice girl”—is “doing in a crazy place like this.”) In 1955’s Blackboard Jungle—one of the pioneers of the genre—new teacher Richard Dadier (Glenn Ford) arrives at the school and looks around bewilderedly at the kids who are smoking, playing around, and dancing to “”—which in 1955 passed for a rebellious, raucous song enjoyed by wayward youth. Dangerous Minds takes this notion a step further: Over the rebellious strains of the Coolio hit “,” it channels and opens with the grainy black and white imagery of an impoverished California neighborhood, painting a dour, bleak scene of life for the kids we are about to meet.

(The scene only bursts into color as they arrive by bus at their school.) In deploying that harsh cinematic technique, director John N. Smith renders the dire station of this particular group of students with an unsubtle brushstroke, setting up LouAnne for an even more triumphant “victory” than the teacher-saviors who came before her. Throughout the movie, Dangerous Minds portrays a dynamic between LouAnne and her students—of the doting authority figure and the infantile teenager—that borders on parody. LouAnne, for her part, is initially portrayed as a fragile woman whose students easily break her composure on Day 1. (It’s an unlikely speed bump, considering her background as a Marine.) She walks out in the middle of her class to vent to the colleague and friend who helped her get the job in the first place: “I can’t teach them!” At home that evening, a montage shows her diligently reading a book called Assertive Discipline and eventually reaching an epiphany—she’ll project authority and command respect by donning a leather jacket and wowing the kids with karate instructions. The students, meanwhile, are largely portrayed as fatalistic about their own lives and antagonistic toward their teacher because she’s white. They call her “white bread”; in one scene, the grandmother of two of her students calls her a “honky bitch.” Facing such resentment, LouAnne has her work more than cut out for her.

The disconnect between a white teacher and his or her nonwhite students is a recurrent feature of these films, but the structure of Dangerous Minds bungles it more clumsily than usual. By having the students exert prejudice upon their teacher rather than make any explicit mention of how the education system overwhelmingly fails black and Latino students in turn, the students are largely responsible for their own failures. Blackboard Jungle at least tries to address racial and ethnic differences in a meaningful way. In that film, Richard Dadier’s students are a diverse bunch rife with conflict because of their different ethnic and racial backgrounds. It’s a tension he frequently has to ease by reprimanding his kids for using derogatory slurs toward one another, and by incorporating the appreciation of other cultures into his lessons.

In a scene with his student Miller (Sidney Poitier), who’s planning to quit school to become a mechanic, Richard points to opera singer Marian Anderson and boxer Joe Louis as reasons Miller shouldn’t give up on higher aspirations because of his race. That’s a rather pat kind of encouragement (this was the 1950s, after all), but at least the teacher is acknowledging race, and racism, in a somewhat useful way. Similarly, in 1988’s Stand and Deliver, calculus teacher Jaime Escalante (Edward James Olmos) warns his Latino students that their names and complexions will be judged in the real world, but “math is the great equalizer.” (He and his students soon get a hard dose of reality that this is not always the case, when they are accused of having cheated on their Advanced Placement exam.) Such complexities are absent from Dangerous Minds—LouAnne doesn’t attempt to reach out to her students from their point of view or realistically confront the odds they face. To get her kids to enjoy poetry, she uses the not-very-relevant Bob Dylan’s “Mr. Tambourine Man” and describes the lyrics as a metaphor for dealing drugs; she bribes them as if they were 5-year-olds, with prizes and a field trip to an amusement park. (In the similarly plotted Freedom Writers starring Hilary Swank, her character is shown using the lyrics of Tupac to engage her classroom, perhaps because 12 years after Dangerous Minds, rap was no longer the vilified art form it once was.). All of these moments add up to a film made up of relationships that don’t ring true, even though the intent behind the story, in line with its predecessors’, is clearly an honorable one.

In fact, much of the real LouAnne Johnson’s My Posse Don’t Do Homework didn’t make it to the screen—after selling the film rights, she had no involvement with the script, which is credited to screenwriter Ron Bass ( My Best Friend’s Wedding, The Joy Luck Club). When it first came out, “I was really upset and so were my students by the way they were portrayed,” she tells me. What bothered her most about the final movie was the grandmother who called her character a “honky bitch.” Johnson says she actually had a good relationship with the woman, and that they worked together to help keep her twin grandsons on the right track and graduate. “I asked them why did they put that in,” she says, “and they said, ‘Well, we were sure that a lot of the black and Hispanic parents resented you for being white.’ ” Johnson says that while she did have a student who told her he hated white people, she otherwise didn’t encounter such blatant name-calling or hostility. But there were other crucial alterations, as well: Johnson didn’t teach her students Bob Dylan; in My Posse Don’t Do Homework, she recalls bringing in the lyrics to Public Enemy’s “,” and asking students to choose their own song lyrics to bring in to class. (They weren’t all rap songs, either—the kids also brought in heavy metal, jazz, and country lyrics.) And while she did visit her students and their parents at home without administrators’ knowledge—“it’s much easier to get forgiveness than permission,” she says—she didn’t go so far as to bribe them with candy or an inappropriate field trip to an amusement park.Johnson isn’t the only person involved with Dangerous Minds who would have approached the final film differently. Bass, the screenwriter, tells me, “The movie you saw wasn’t the screenplay I wrote.

My name is on the script, because the writer who came in and did very substantial rewriting”——“didn’t want credit, and I was asked to take the sole credit.” In his version, Bass had hoped to convey the strong bond he’d witnessed between Johnson and her students while sitting in on one of her classes, and how much they gave to her as she did them. Bass is well-aware of how the final version of Dangerous Minds can be seen by some as being overtly paternalistic, with the white hero coming to save the day.

But he also insists that that was never the intent of those who worked closely on the movie. I admire the work that Elaine did I wonder if in retrospect, hearing that said sometimes over the years, if anybody would say I didn’t realize that the balance was such that it could make people wonder if that was in the mix. If I had to go back, I’d certainly switch scenes back in, I’d readjust the balance so that everybody knew that the relationship was a two-way street.(According to Johnson, this imbalance was apparent to at least one actor from the film. When visiting the set, the actress who played Callie, Bruklin Harris, asked her why it always has to be a white person lifting up the “poor little Negroes.” Johnson’s blunt response: “I wrote the book, I have to be white.” And: Hollywood at the time simply didn’t embrace stories with black female protagonists.). This imbalance and oversimplicity reaches its peak at the end of the film, when LouAnne pleads with her most troubled student, the brooding Emilio (Wade Dominguez), to go to the school administrator Mr. Grandy (Courtney B.

Vance) and tell him about a kid just out of jail who is threatening to kill him because of a grudge. The kid, who is addicted to crack, would go to detox for substance abuse at school, she says, and by the time he gets out, he’ll have “forgotten” about his grudge. “You asked me once how I was gonna save you from your life,” she says. “This is how, this moment, right now. This will make the difference in your life forever.”.

Mr Grandy is one of the only school authority figures of color in the movie, and it’s ultimately his refusal to see Emilio—because he wasn’t “respectful” enough to knock on his office door instead of barging in—that gets Emilio killed. (In real life, Emilio didn’t die; he spent four years in the Marine Corps and started a family.) This moment—and the subsequent scene in which the remaining kids beg LouAnne to stay because she’s their “tambourine man” and their “light”—encapsulates the narrow, patronizing worldview of Dangerous Minds. It is also egregiously maudlin, even compared to To Sir, With Love, in which the teacher’s climactic triumph comes in the form of a. In that film and others, at least, the teachers and their students interact with one another in a way that feels more like the “two-way street” Bass described—like in the end of Blackboard Jungle, when Dadier has decided he won’t quit teaching, and Miller has decided he’ll stay in school after all. “I guess everybody learns something in school, even teachers,” declares Miller. Despite the critical beating it took, Dangerous Minds was a surprise hit that opened atop the box office, besting a post- Speed and legendary bomb, then in its third week.

Its soundtrack, and more specifically, Coolio’s “Gangsta’s Paradise,” became a cultural phenomenon. It even spawned a short-lived television series that replaced Pfeiffer with Annie Potts as Johnson. What’s most fascinating about the film 20 years later is the fact that it lives on as a paradox: It continues to be remembered in large part because it lends itself to parody so well—its one-dimensionality spawned some pretty hilarious pop-culture moments in film and TV shows, like Hamlet 2 and 30 Rock—and stands as a glaring example of the white-savior narrative.

The irony, though, is that despite all of this, it did manage to do the one thing all save-our-students movies set out to do: inspire. “I think it’s emotionally manipulative,” says Johnson. “But I realized a lot of people became teachers because they saw that movie, and I had hundreds of kids who wrote to me and said they were going to finish school because the kids in the movie finished school.”.